The floating garden

You don't need a large garden to make an impact. Here is the floating garden created by my dear brother, Jobo. An artist, and long time garden lover, he currently lives on an old narrow boat that tours the extensive English canal network. When I caught up with him recently his boat was moored in Little Venice in North London.

Jobo's floating garden

Jobo's upper deck is covered with a large array of plants and small statues.Selections include wall flowers, spurges, succulents, herbs and annuals. As river thefts are common there are no expensive pots, but that doesn't matter as the flowers are the stars of the show. When travelling Jobo often goes through canal tunnels, because of this no large plants are used.

The Katherine on the Grand Union Canal

Old sages

One group of plants which came into its own in the perennial revival boom of the late 20th century was the ornamental flowering sages of the Salvia genus. Today there are over 150 different salvias available in Australian plant nurseries. Most of these have been imported over the last 25 years, but there are some which have been grown in our gardens for nearly two centuries.

Salvia patens as illustrated in
Edwards' Ornamental Flower Garden (1854)

For many the best known salvias are the common culinary sage (Salvia officinalis) and the scarlet red bedding sage (Salvia splendens) both of which were growing in Australia by the middle of the nineteenth century. The culinary herb may have been the first sage imported into the colony while the red bedding sage probably came here in the 1840s, although it was not listed on plant catalogues until the early 1850s. 

Another early import was the red flowered tropical sage (Salvia cocinnea). This plant is much gentler on the eye than the red bedding sage and also comes in a white flowered form. Its self-seeding habit has made it a weed in tropical areas of the world so it is hard to find on local seed lists. Despite this it can be found in old gardens and grows easily from seed sown in spring or early summer.

The most popular blue flowered salvia was the gentian sage (Salvia patens). This beautiful plant appears in almost all nursery catalogues from the 1850s and seems to be one of the most popular perennials used in nineteenth century gardens. Being hardy to light frost it is an ideal plant for most temperate climates although it has a tendency to spread by vegetative growth.


Apart from Salvia splendens (which was used in mass plantings), most nineteenth century salvias were used simply as filler plants in large garden beds. Although they never enjoyed the popularity of fuchsias, carnations, or geraniums, the salvias’ long flowering habit and ease of propagation would have made them a hard plant to ignore in the nineteenth century Australian garden. Perhaps owners, gardeners and designers of heritage gardens will review their planting selections to include some of these much-loved early perennial favourites.

Salvias commonly found in nineteenth century Australia gardens

Salvia africana-lutea* (syn: Salvia aurea) available from 1850s

Salvia azurea - prairie sage – available from 1850s

Salvia coccinea – commonly available by 1850

Salvia farinacea - mealy sage – appears on nursery lists by late 1880s

Salvia microphylla ‘Kew Red’ – (syn: Salvia grahamii) – available from 1880s

Salvia officinalis* - common sage - probably the first imported sage

Salvia patens  - gentian sage – appears on many local nursery lists from 1850s

Salvia splendens – tall growing red cultivars available in Australia by 1850s 

* denotes a frost hardy species

While a limited range of salvias are available from most nurseries the best range is available from Sue Tempteton's Unlimited Perennials nursery at 369 Boomerang Drive, Lavington 2641, NSW. Tel 02 - 6025 4585. Sue has a mail order service and website http://www.salviaspecialist.com/

Salvia illustration courtesy of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, Library

Nurseries: Honeysuckle Cottage Nursery

In recent years the nursery trade has been in dire straights. Less and less people are gardening which means more and more nurseries are closing or are being swallowed-up by the large retail chains. Despite this there are some nurseries that valiantly trade on year-after-year despite the vicissitudes of taste, climate and economics. One such nursery is Honeysuckle Cottage located in the foothills of the Blue Mountains at Bowen Mountain, near Richmond.

This half-hidden sign on the road declares that
the nursery is 'the home of Old Fashioned Plants.'

Honeysuckle Cottage was established by Keith and Judyth Mcleod in 1977. At the time this nursery was one of many dedicated to selling perennials and roses as the cottage garden revival style was then popular, but since the late 1990s there has been a move away from this kind of gardening. Sadly, today Honeysuckle Cottage is the only nursery near Sydney that specialises in rare and unusual perennials and herbaceous plants.

First view of the nursery from the road

I remember visiting the nursery on one of my early visits with a climbing rose I couldn't identify. Without hesitation Keith - the resident rosearian - ID'd the flower as 'White Maman Cochet', a popular Tea Rose during the Edwardian period. Since then I have visited Honeysuckle Cottage several times a year looking for unusual plants and sage advice.

'White Maman Cochet' tea rose

Honeysuckle Cottage is a 'proper nursery' as they propagate and grow their own plants, unlike most modern nurseries who buy in stock from large wholesalers. While many nurseries have adopted the sales techniques of modern retailing (colour-themed display stands, piped music and pink uniforms) this nursery display their plants in the traditional way on the ground and in romantic disorder.

Many of the plants for sale are growing near their parent stock plants, such as the 3 metre tall Mexican Fuchsia Sage (Salvia iodantha) which on my last visit was in full bloom near the sales shed. Of course after seeing this plant I bought one after seeing its mother in her full glory. As well as Salvia the nursery has a wonderful selection of herbs, most notably lavender and thyme.

Salvia iodantha 

Co-owner Dr Judyth McLeod is a prolific author of garden and history books and many of her publications have a world wide market. I can certainly recomend her book Heritage Gardening (1994), and her more recent study of medieval gardening In a Unicorn's Garden (2008).

One of many books by Dr Judyth McLeod

All the staff working at the nursery are friendly and certainly know their plants well, and a keen gardener can easily spend an hour walking through the nursery in the company of the resident bell birds. Although not to every gardeners taste, Honeysuckle Nursery is one of the most idiosyncratic nurseries in Australia, and for those with an interest in perenials, herbs and roses it makes a must-see horticultural pilgrimage site. 

Honeysuckle Nursery is located at 30 Bowen Mountain Road, Grose Vale, NSW 2753 (tel 02-4572 1345). The nursery is open six days a week (closed Wednesday), but it's best to ring first during the week.http://www.honeysuckle-cottage.com.au/